Mounting the Nano....
 

Hi all.... Just a few thoughts on fixing the Nano to Sony cameras. Would it be possible to fix the V part of a Vmount to the unit via a plate, thus leaving the Nano with air circulating - for cooling. Or a leather/canvas/plastic bag with the Vmount attached to that. It would restict airflow, don't know how warm the Nano runs, but protect it from knocks and weather etc. Sony make a bracket that fits the standard holes at the rear of their bigger camera bodies and IDX do the same. This is for mounting radio receivers - the IDX version allows for changing batteries without disturbing anything. Hawk-Woods also make a variety of mounting plates with Dtap and/or Hirose power outs. I'm sure the EX1/3 range could be included with minor changes to the fixings.
Returning to the bigger camera bodies, beware the 12V Hirose on the back panel, it's been put there to tempt the unwary. It is for the said radio receiver and expects a very low load - 200 milliwatts (?) Not sure what would happen if it was hit with 7 watts.
And lots of checking on POLARITY - seems pins 1 & 4 are the other way round, in defiance of a thousand years of history - possibly.

Best wishes - happy Nanohours of fun. Godfrey

Dear Godfrey,

Mr. Steve Phillips had a similar request not too long ago.

We created a V-Mount Wedge Plate for the back of the nanoFlash.

This optional, at extra cost, plate allows the nanoFlash to be mounted where a V-Mount battery would normally reside.

This could be directly on the back of a camera that accepts V-Mount plates, or on the back of Piggy-Back IDX batteries.

The plate was designed so that the nanoFlash could be rotated to any of four positions, up, down, left, or right.

Both of these snapshots are not that great, but I wanted to get some photos out to show the concept. The second photo shows the nanoFlash, with the new plate, attached to an IDX V-Mount Adapter plate.

The wedge fits reasonably tight onto the V-Mount.

Please note that we do not take any power from the Piggy Back batteries or any other V-Mount. This is to provide a secure mounting for the nanoFlash.

We also offer a plate for mounting the nanoFlash to an Anton Bauer Gold Mount adapter.

Dear Godfrey,

As you mentioned, some power outlets on pro cameras have very limited power capabilities, and others provide up to 1.5 amps of power.

We use 5.6 watts, so we are under .5 amp depending on the voltage. But we are more than the 200 milliwatts or so provided by some cameras.

Since our polarity, Pin 1 = Positive and Pin 4 = ground is different than most (But identical to the Toshiba camera power supply pin-out).

The nanoFlash is protected, for short durations, from damage due to the proper voltage, but reverse polarity.

We are also protected, for short durations, from overvoltage. We accept 6.5 V DC to 19.5 Volt DC.

Please note that these are not Battery Rated Voltages, such as 14.4 V, but actual voltages.

A 14.4 V Lithium-Ion battery, directly off the charger is much more than 14.4 V DC, but it is always less than 19.5 V.

An 18 V Lithium-Ion battery may be more than 19.5 Volts directly off the charger and thus should not be used.

A 28 V Helicopter power supply should not be used, but 12 to 14 volt power from a helicopter can be used.

We offer the proper Male 4-Pin Hirose to Female 4-Pin Hirose cables which are wired to provide the proper polarity to the nanoFlash.

All of the other cables we offer also provide the proper polarity.

A side note: Mr. Andy Shipsides of Abel Cine Tech recommends the use of a D-Tap, over the use of the Hirose power tap, whenever possible to avoid the problems with cameras that have limited power output.

But, if this is for your camera, and you know that it can handle our 0.5 amp, then you are ok to use our Hirose to Hirose cables.

Dan - I hope I have managed to attach a picture of one of the Hawk Woods units that mounts on the rear of the camera between the battery and the camera's V mount. This particular one gives you four switched (regulated?)12V outputs of up to 50 watts. So lots of options. And do I see a little bracket ear that could take the Nano?

Here's to Ohm's Law -Regards, Godfrey

Dear Godfrey,

Thank you for pointing us to the Hawk Woods products.

I found their website and found the following device (among others) that has a 4-Pin Hirose power cable.

Hawk-Woods Ltd - Product Details

Caution: This device probably has the positive lead going to Pin-4, and ground to Pin-1. This is the standard that many devices use, including Sound Devices' products.

We use the pin-out that Toshiba uses where Pin-1 is Positive and Pin-4 is ground.

We recommend that one ensures the cable is wired correctly for our device before plugging in a power supply. If it is not one of ours, or one for Toshiba's POV cameras, it is probably not wired for our nanoFlash.

If you plug in a power supply and the nanoFlash does not turn on, please unplug it immediately.